Dharma Lineage
In the History of the Nun Sangha
On Friday, June 20, 2014 at the International Buddhist Institute in Los Angeles, at the request of the Sangha, Bhikkhunī Giới Hương, Bhikkhunī Nguyên Ý and Bhikkhunī Đức Huy presented to the retreat the topic: “Dhamma Lineage in the History of the Nun Sangha from the Buddha's Time to the Present.”
Dharma attainment bears various meanings, such as the enlightenment of pure vision, awakening, being free from views and precept attachments and no doubts as to the Three Jewels. No longer do we have subtle ignorance or defilements; we immediately become Buddhas and Patriarchs and receive the inheritance Dharma robe. However, within the scope of this article, Dharma also means the religious levels of the venerable nuns who have awareness and understanding of the Dharma. The awakened nuns wholeheartedly with the monk sangha share Dharma for the benefit of many. Without awakening, the service would be limited and entangled. Therefore, the image of the religious nuns in this article may be the nun saints who have attained arahantship, the female Bodhisattvas who have obtained Dharma visions or the Venerable Bhikkhunīs who have been enlightened and wholeheartedly with devotion serve Buddhism.
Lecture on Nuns at the Summer Retreat,
International Buddhist Institute in 2014, North Hills, California
From these events, the Nun Patriarch Mahāpajāpati Gotamī is considered to be the first nun to have attained arahantship. The five hundred bhikkhunīs also transformed their defilements to be pure, overcame samsara and finally attained arahantship. In fact, the first Nun Patriarch Mahāpajāpati Gotamī obtained the first saintly position of sotāpatti when she just listened to the Buddha preaching the Dhamma-Pāla-Jātaka in Kapilavastu. After being ordained, she attained arahantship and uttered her awakening verse:
Realized the sufferings
To let go of the deep craving
The Eightfold Noble Path
The extinction – the enlightenment
To end a birth-death cycle
No more the incarnation.
After the initiation of the nuns’ community, they escaped the slavery of the ordinary female under Indian society’s logo, “respect men more than women. Ever since, the glorious Buddhist history of nuns continues to this day.
The image of nuns attaining enlightenment under the Buddha’s tutelage: Bhikkhunī Giới Hương expressed that in the Buddha’s time, at first only the Buddha and monks practiced and shared the Dharma. Then, thanks to the request of Venerable Ananda, the Buddha agreed for his aunt, Mahāpajāpati Gotamī (who took care of him when he was born after Queen Maya died), the Yaśodharā princess and 500 Sakya noble ladies to be nuns who could join his Sangha with the condition that they keep the Eight Respectful Disciplines (S. guradharmā; P. aṭṭha garudhammā) and the nun sangha was established and continues to this day.
The Gotamī Suttā (Anguttara Nikàya) and Mahāpajāpati Gotamī Suttā (Dìgha Nikàya) depicted that Mahāpajāpati Gotamī and 500 Sakya royal ladies sacrificed all the richness and glory of the noble ones to put on the simple yellow robes. They endured many obstacles, including walking barefoot for 200 kilometers from the capital of Kapilavastu to Vaishali to sincerely beg the Buddha to allow them to abandon the family life, live a homeless life according to Dhamma and the law of the Tathāgata.
The Buddha recognized the ability of women to attain enlightenment. He agreed with with the condition that they must uphold the Eight Respectful Disciplines (S. Guradharmā; P. Aṭṭha Garudhammā). After that, Mahāpajāpati Gotamī and 500 female Sakya lineages were ordained as bhikkhunīs. They established the nun sangha, lived virtuous lives and were as liberated. Princess Yasodharā also joined the nun sangha and attained arahantship with many supernatural powers.
From these events, the Nun Patriarch Mahāpajāpati Gotamī is considered to be the first nun to have attained arahantship The five hundred bhikkhunīs who accompanied her also transformed all of their defilements, stepped out of samsara and finally attained arahantship. In fact, the first Nun Patriarch, Mahāpajāpati Gotamī, obtained the first saintly position of sotāpatti when she listened to the Buddha preaching the Dhamma-Pāla-Jātaka in Kapilavastu. After being ordained, the first Nun Patriarch attained arahantship and spoke this awakening verse:
Realized the Sufferings
Let go of deep craving
The Eightfold Noble Path
Extinction – Enlightenment
To end a birth – death cycle
No more incarnation.
After the initiation of the nun’s community, they escaped the slavery of the ordinary female under Indian society’s logo: “Respect men more than women,” Ever since, the glorious Buddhist history of nuns has continued to this day.
Bhikkhunī Nguyên Ý presented the image of nuns attaining enlightenment in the Theravāda tradition: According to the Therīgāthā, there are seventy-five nun arahants among which, there are typically three famous figures:
Venerable Bhikkhunī Sukha: During the Buddha's lifetime, Sukha (the wise) was born into a noble family in Rajagada. When she reached the age of majority, she developed her bodhi mind and became a devout practitioner. Later, upon hearing Venerable Bhikkhunī Dharmadinna's sermon, she became her disciple and practiced meditation to attain the knowledge of Dhamma (dhammaveda) and knowledge of the goal (atthaveda) and become a good teacher. Bhikkhunī Sukha preached to all the nuns. All listeners sat completely silent, with fervent devotion, deepening their faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. At that time, a tree deity standing at the back of the yard came to hear the Dharma and praised Bhikkhunī Sukha’s wonderful sermon with the following verse:
We are thinking of the wise
Drinking of sweet water
Water source is pure
No obstacle in the way
As a passenger on the road
Receives the blessing rain.
When listening to the verse of the tree deity, people were excited and often came to listen to Sukha’s sermons. Sometime later, before entering Nirvāna, Venerable Bhikkhunī Sukha left the following verse:
To respectful Sukha
A child of the light
No more greed but concentration
Thanks to the Dharma light
This is the final life
After seeing the defilement ghosts.
Thus, we see Venerable Bhikkhunī Sukha, thanks to the practice of the knowledge of dharma and knowledge of the goal, she attained arahantship. Owing to the wisdom light emanating from the practice of meditation, she used the sword of wisdom to break all afflictions, exclude all ignorances and became arahant and a distinguished preacher (shaman). As such, a female can achieve and become an emissary of the Tathāgata.
Venerable Bhikkhunī Abhirupa Nanda: In the Buddha's time, Abhirupa Nanda was born in Kapilavatthu, the daughter of King Khemala, the Sakyamuni family. Because she was so beautiful, the name Abhirupa Nanda (beautiful Nanda) was given to her. After being ordained, Abhirupa Nanda was still proud of her beauty and feared the Blessed One's rebuke, hence she often avoided him. The Blessed One knew that Nanda was skilled in practice, but not yet fruitful because she was still proud and attached to her beauty. Thus, the Blessed One told the Nun Patriarch Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī to gather all of the bhikkhunīs to listen to his lecture. Bhikkhunī Nanda asked another nun who to take her place, but the Blessed One did not accept and forced her to attend. At that time, the Buddha used the superpower to appear as a beautiful woman, more beautiful than Bhikkhunī Abhirupa Nanda. Bhikkhunī Abhirupa Nanda was very touched, awakened and emitted an awakening light to eradicate the craving of beauty. The Buddha immediately recited the following verse:
Bhikkhunī Nanda looks there
The body is aggregated
Lots of sickness and dirt
The smell is bad
Reflect your mind
Awakening the impure nature
Attained the pointedness
Skill at meditation
Practicing the formless
Let go the arrogance
With this awakening
You live in peace.
After listening to the Blessed One’s verse, Bhikkhunī Abhirupa Nanda realized the impermanent Dharma that this body only contains impure and sickening things. Yet for a long time, she kept greedily grasping her body and generated pride and complacency. Because of that passion, she could not attain full enlightenment. Now, thanks to the teaching of the Blessed One, she had knowledge arise and used that sword of wisdom to dissolve the craving for beauty so that she attained arahantship.
Bhikkhunī Sumana: In the Buddha's time, Princess Sumana, the sister of King Kosala, was born in Savatthi. After listening to the Buddha's sermon, she attained the level of anāgāmi and asked to become a nun, despite her old age. She practiced sincerely and the Buddha saw her maturity in wisdom. He composed the following verse:
Oh! An old Bhikkhunī!
Please rest in peace
Do it by yourself
Greed is down
The cold eye is extinct.
After listening to it, she thoroughly understood the meaning and attained arahantship. Thus, we see that since the Buddha allowed women to join the Sakyamuni lineage, the nuns also made efforts to practice diligently and transform disturbing negative emotions to attain sainthood, just as the monks.
The image of nuns attaining enlightenment in the Mahāyāna tradition: Bhikkhunī Đức Huy expressed that in the Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra, there is a female bodhisattva who attained enlightenment. She is the reincarnation of the Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva, originally an ancient Buddha. Because of being less blessed and with thick karma, human beings fall into saṃsāra. The bodhisattva took a vow to return as a female bodhisattva abiding in saṃsāra for the sake of many, especially the stubborn ones. The bodhisattva was diligent, subdued the disturbing emotions and tirelessly educated sentient beings.
In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra), the Buddha praised: “Owing to human beings, bodhisattvas have generated great compassion. Due to great compassion, bodhisattvas developed the bodhi mind (bodhicitta). Because of the bodhi mind, bodhisattvas became the enlightenment.” The image of the Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva is a laywoman, wearing a gem bead string, holding a blue lotus flower; her mind is like a shining mirror, is pure as still water. Her vow is for diligence in cultivating bodhisattva conduct. She is a shining example of a female bodhisattva for the nuns to emulate.
Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara is an ancient Buddha whose title is the “Right Dharma Tathāgata.” Out of compassion for sentient beings, he made his vow to practice compassion to save sentient beings. According to the Lotus Sūtra, in the “Popular Door Chapter,” Shakyamuni Buddha clearly explained that Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva cultivated the hearing nature method, listening to the cries for help. He responded to save them, thus the Buddha gave him the title of Guan Yin Bodhisattva. Because beings also create karma and still drift in many realms of birth and death, he manifested thirty-two figures to save sentient beings from danger. He is called Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. Because he incarnates as a female Bodhisattva with compassion for sentient beings like a mother loves her son, she is called the Goddess of Mercy.
The image of the two female bodhisattvas of Mahāsthāmaprāpta and Avalokiteśvara and their great vows for beings proved that the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha can erase the bias of “respect men more than women” in the long traditional Indian history. Through their vows, they have shown us that both compassion and wisdom are wings needed for Buddhists to come to liberation, and an example for nuns to study and practice. Nuns attaining enlightenment in the Mahāyāna tradition are those fully willing to grant happiness and release suffering for beings.
The image of nuns in the eleventh century to the present: Bhikkhunī Giới Hương presented that the Most Venerable Thanh Từ in his book, History of Vietnamese Zen Masters, wrote that Venerable Bhikkhunī Diệu Nhân belonged to the eleventh-twelfth century. She was Princess Ngọc Kiều in the Lê dynasty. After the death of her husband, she ordained as a Buddhist nun. Due to a strong belief in the precepts, meditation, samādhi and a thorough comprehension of the Mahāyāna teachings, she became a famous teacher and an outstanding religious nun among the Vietnamese Nun Sangha. She left many Zen verses.
For example, someone asked her: “What do you call sitting still?”
She replied: “In the past, I didn’t go. In the present, I don’t go.
Question: “Why is it called non-verbal?”
Answer: “Buddhism is inherently wordless.”
These verses were composed by Venerable Bhikkhunī Diệu Nhân who handed them down as she passed away. It proved that she had attained enlightenment at the ultimate destination state:
Birth, old age, sickness and death
Long ago it has been a rule
Want to get rid of it
More open more ties
In the dark, the Buddha is found
Under ignorance, meditation is sought
No need to find the Buddha or meditation
Close mouth no talk.
Venerable Bhikkhunī Diệu Nhân passed away at the age of seventy-one She belonged to the seventeenth generation of the Zen Bhikkhuni Lineage. She is the only nun who achieved instant patriarch Zen enlightenment. In 1299, King Trần Nhân Tông renamed Hương Vân Đại Đầu Đà, founded Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Zen Lineage and at that time Queen Khâm Từ, wife of King Trần Nhân Tông, also became a nun.
In the book, Am Mây Ngủ (Sleeping Clouds on the Hut Peak) of Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh, he narrated that in the fourteenth century to maintain the political relationship between Champa (Chiêm) and Vietnam, King Trần Nhân Tông ordered his daughter, Princess Huyền Trân to marry Chiêm King so both countries to combine to protect themselves against the foreign invaders from Nguyên Army. One year after King Chiêm's death, the princess returned to Vietnam. and became Bhikkhunī Hương Đàm. She often meditated on Yên Tử mountain where there are beautiful clouds, hence the title, Sleeping Clouds on the Hut Peak (Am Mây Ngủ). The hermitage at the top of the mountain is windy and covered in clouds.
Bhikkhunī Từ Quán: In the fourteenth century, under the Trần dynasty, Bhikkhunī Từ Quán lived in Thanh Lương Hut, the only nun who could receive the grant title of “Tuệ Thông Great Female Master” by King Trần Nghệ Tông. She donated her body to feed the hungry tigers, but her compassion was so affecting that the tigers kneeled around her without eating her flesh. Sometime later, she passed away and left a will: “After I die, you should divide my bones for grinding as a medicine to cure patients. Because life is miserable, I vow to save beings from suffering.” It is clear that her bones saved many patients’ lives.
In the following centuries, there has been no historical document about nuns attaining enlightenment. Particularly in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, we have many high-ranking nuns:
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Như Thanh: She became a nun at the beautiful youthful age of twenty-two. She strictly observed the precepts and often taught Vinaya for nuns in the west, central and southern regions of Vietnam. She is an exemplary nun. She receives hundreds of nun disciples, and often opened the summer retreat for nuns from any corner. She appealed to all nuns in the western, central and southern regions to be a unified Nun Sangha. She often played the leading Venerable Bhikkhunī role in sixteen ordination ceremonies, established over ten monasteries, opened nonprofit organizations, charity activities, a Bodhi school and medicine stores. She also has a great contribution in terms of culture, translation and authorship, such as twelve works, seven translations, nine poems. She is eighty-nine years old in the world and sixty-seven years old in Buddhism. A very meditative poem written by the most Venerable Như Thanh:
The former predestined up to now,
Nun Sangha has the deep root to develop
Admire the pleasure at meditation
Illuminate the holy mind by transmission
Without hard walk from East to West,
The awakening destination at the ignorance river
Five colors of good clouds follow the vow,
Pure Nirvāna at the heart of meditation.
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Diệu Không: She ordained at age twenty-seven and established the nunneries of Diệu Đức and Hồng Ân to help the ordained nuns have the proper places to practice. Ven. Diệu Không also restored many different temples, such as Kiều Đàm in Sàigòn, along with building many orphanages and engaging in social charity. Ven. Diệu Không belongs to the noble lineage, possesses the talent and has profound knowledge in Buddhism. She is dedicated in the fields of culture, education, translation, authorship, poetry and has collaborated with many Buddhist magazines. Many of her translated works are quite valuable, such as, the Mahā-Prajnā-Paramitā Sāstra, the Maitreya Buddha-to-be Sūtra, Vijĩaptimàtratàsidhi-Sāstra, Aṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Yogācāra-Bhūmi Sāstra, Present the Truth Sāstra, and the Mūla Madhyamakakārikā.
Venerable Bhikkhunī Diệu Không represents the great spirit of the nun community in Huế. In 1997, she passed away at the age of ninety-three with fifty-three-years in Buddhism. There are two verses in her memory book that spoke of her virtues:
Admired the predecessor’s conduct and compassion for life and religion at the graceful days at Hồng Ân Temple.
Contemplated the mind of sentient beings, to release suffering, transform defilement, early or later for the sake of many.
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Đàm Lựu: She ordained at age sixteen and worked as the director of an orphanage in Saigon. In 1984, after settling in the United States, she founded Đức Viên Pagoda, as well as a school to teach the Vietnamese language in San Jose, California. She organized projects to sell vegetarian meals weekly and collected cans, bottles and paper to earn the funds to build the temple. She always showed her manners of humility, peace, patience, and dedication as a kind mother caring for children in the mission of serving sentient beings. She accomplished many Buddhist works, always reciting the Buddha's name while walking, standing and sitting. In 1999, she passed away, living for sixty-seven years in life and forty-eight years in Buddhism. According to the yearbook of the Đức Viên Pagoda, she attained the inconceivable liberation powers and the dharma-kaya just as it is described the Pāramitā Reciting the Buddha’s Name Sūtra. Because of her compassionate and virtuous practice while she was alive, now after death her relics are like beautiful pearl chains.
Who says that women cannot bring the light of Three Gems
And the wonderful Dharma to human beings?
She is a good example for every nun in the United States continuing their career to lead the future of Buddhism.
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Hải Triều Âm: At age twenty-nine, she ordained under the Master Venerable Thích Đức Nhuận. She often wrote newspapers with her pen name Cát Tường Lan. Due to karma and the profound Dharma she was very strict about keeping the precepts-meditative-wisdom as the Buddha taught. As a result, many disciple nuns (up to 800 women) gather to learn under her guidance. There were also thousands of lay Buddhist followers who also gathered to take refuge with her. She established more than ten Buddhist temples in Đại Ninh, Lâm Đồng and Sàigòn for nuns to stay. She follows the method of Samādhi Pure Land, making the vow of rebirth in the blissful West. Every year in the spring, she taught the Śūraṅgama Sūtra to introduce Mahāyāna meaning that enlightens the nuns’ minds. In the summer, she taught the Vinaya to help her nun disciples know how to keep the precepts. In the autumn, she explained the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna), that body (kāyā), sensations (vedanā), consciousness (cittā) and elements (Dhamma) are so changeable that we must detach from worldly objects to reach final liberation.
The Most Venerable Bhikkhunī Hải Triều Âm recapitulated many sutras, such as the Śūraṅgama, Saddharma Puṇḍarīka, Avataṃsaka, Maha Prajñā Pāramitā Hridaya Sūtra, the rules of the Bhikkhunīs, Satipaṭṭhāna (the Four Foundations of Mindfulness) and so on. With the easy-to-understand simple style of writing, authentic examples in daily life, the nun community with the average educational level can grasp the quintessence of the Buddha's teachings and practice them. She has written nearly 100 works, but none of them has her name, just the names of her disciples as authors or writers. Her whole life she has raised the role model of selflessness, egolessness and no-dharma attachment. She devoted herself to protecting, nurturing and training hundreds of nuns to be saints. In 2013, she passed away, ninety-four years old; sixty years old in Buddhism.
The mountain river will move
The heavy gratitude from masters cannot fade
We voluntarily inscribed her teachings
As the spiritual luggage package throughout life.
Besides, the four above Venerable Bhikkhunīs of Như Thanh, Diệu Không, Đàm Lựu, and Master Hải Triều Âm, there are many other Dharma nuns such as Venerable Bhikkhunī Trí Hải, Venerable Bhikkhunī Bảo Nguyệt, and others who have shown the noble beauty of the Nun Sangha in the present age.
The Virtues Needed by Nuns to Practice
Gender does not interfere with self-effort and other-effort. In her memorial yearbook, Venerable Bhikkhunī Diệu Không vowed that she will be born in the saha world (not the Pure Land of Amitābha Buddha) in the female form to approach females to convert them. “May the Buddha prove that in the next thousands of lives, I will stay in any corner of the saha realm.” Perhaps because of that great wish, many nuns and lay Buddhists came to learn under her guidance. Gender does not hinder our self-practice and other-practice; females are able to go along with the great monks to spread Buddhism.
- The advantage of women is softness, gentleness, tenderness, endurance, strength and perseverance, which can help nuns have easy access to Dharma, enlightenment and teaching.
- With strong will, confidence and determination, nuns can share the burden with the Sangha of supporting, guiding the nuns, and training the nuns to maintain the spiritual fortune of the Lord Buddha.
- Venerable Bhikkhunīs of Như Thanh, Diệu Không, Đàm Lựu, and Master Hải Triều Âm and others bravely stood up as the eminent great beings shared the Buddhist burdens with the monk sangha in the mission, “Tathāgata’s Messenger.”
- Venerable Bhikkhunī Như Thanh, as well as Master Hải Triều Âm, advise nuns who often take the retreat to strengthen their morality, virtue and merit, before engaging in society to serve sentient beings. It helps nuns to be reflective and avoid mistakes. Our job will become the Buddha's job.
In summary, in the Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Sūtra, the Buddha taught “Ananda, after renunciation of your family, you became homeless, lived in Dharma and Vinaya taught by the Tathāgata. A female can become a stream-enterer (sotāpatti), once-returner (sakadāgāmī), non-returner (anāgāmī) and without rebirth (arahanta).”
In the Mahāyāna sūtra, the Buddha also emphasized, “Everyone has the inherent Buddha nature, possesses the ability to become a Buddha, and attains the Dharma.” The Dharma lineage in the history of the nun sangha from the Buddha's time to the present twenty-first century is an awakening bell that tells us that Buddhism teaches equality between men and women, between monks and nuns, without discrimination. Whoever practices the Dharma with effort, he or she can attain sainthood. Therefore, the nuns should strive to develop virtuous abilities as our predecessor nuns.
The images of the Venerable Bhikkhunīs are always exemplary for the nuns to follow and study. The dharma attainment is like sandalwood whose glorious scent, wisdom and compassion spreads
Questions and answers: The understanding of presenters are limited, thus with the desire to have full pictures of the nun patriarchs in Buddhist history to contribute to a book, the writer (Bhikkhunī Giới Hương) and other presenters paid sincere homage to the sangha who kindly provide and add more images as well as material.
Many monks and nuns in the conference contributed that there are other famous nuns such as Bhikkhunī Uppalavaṇṇā, Śrīmālādevī, and so on (the presenter welcomes more information from the monks, nuns and Buddhists from far and near to kindly provide more information on this topic to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Question: Why did the Dragon Girl naturally turned into a boy and then became a Buddha without coming directly from a female body?
Answer: (Venerable Master Thích Minh Chí answered) In the Nirvāna Sūtra, there are two pages that mention the craving of women as being very heavy, so the Dragon Girl must be turned into a male figure before becoming a Buddha. Venerable Nhật Trí MC said that, in fact, the sex of men is heavy because all rapes are caused by men. The Most Venerable Thắng Hoan explained that because dragon women are dragons, they must turn into a human and then from a human who can become a Buddha. To conclude the presentation, he kindly offered a poem “The Role Model of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī” to all Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī’s descendants:
The Role Model of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī
The wisdom moon shines eternally
Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī still a good example
Leave the luxury palace behind
Throw away the queen’s throne
Determined to find the truth without fear of difficulties
The direction of the Truth is hard
The royal ladies hope to find the wonderful Dhamma
Making a thousand torches after opening the way
Let sisters together to continue
Ancient footprints connected the light flower association
For the benefit of beings in three thousand worlds
Prajñā boat turned to the dream port.
International Buddhist Institute, The Retreat Diary
California, June 20, 2014
Yours sincerely,
Bhikkhunī Thích Nữ Giới Hương
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